


Hold my gaze and we'll be fine

by chocolatecastleinthesky



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Anxious Katsuki Yuuri, Babysitting, Friendship, Protective Yuri Plisetsky, Yuri Plisetsky's past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:01:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21813352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chocolatecastleinthesky/pseuds/chocolatecastleinthesky
Summary: Yuri and Yuuri - a tale of anxiety and friendship
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri & Yuri Plisetsky, Otabek Altin/Yuri Plisetsky
Comments: 8
Kudos: 93
Collections: Mirage664's Read and Loved





	Hold my gaze and we'll be fine

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Maisie Peter's Take Care of Yourself

Yuri was tired. That was an understatement, really. It may have been the off season, but he had picked up a job at the local animal shelter. He went in during early mornings, before they opened for the day, to help out. He would spend two hours each morning brushing cats, cleaning litter boxes, organizing the supply room, and on occasion filing paperwork. He loved it. He truly did. It didn’t pay much but he was able to play with the cats and help them get better homes.

He put his money from this additional job away into a savings account; he wasn’t stupid about money. He had been helping support his grandfather for years now, and he knew how to penny pinch growing up. This job was a secret, anyway. Yakov, Viktor, Mila… no one knew he was earning extra money. Not even his dedushka.

Yuri remembered learning how to skate on used skates, his mother helping him. She’d had him young; she was a dancer training under Lilia and had gotten pregnant at an international performance. She left her dancing career when she found out she was pregnant, and had a range of health issues after giving birth. Lilia had ensured she had a healthy pregnancy; but she had already been too thin and developing minor health problems. His memories of his mother were of a frail, young woman with near translucent skin and soft blonde hair. She passed away when he was six after contracting pneumonia.

Yuri shook his head. It was far too early to be thinking about his childhood. He’d thrown himself into skating after his mother’s death to cope. He was good at it. He danced along to videos his dedushka had of her performances. He secretly took up a job after school at the local ice rink. He kept the equipment organized, cleaned the skates, and cleaned the locker rooms. He earned $2/hour, which he kept saved in his room in a music box his mother had given him. He was also able to take some lessons when the rink was slow.

When his dedushka realized how much he loved skating, he reached out to Lilia and Yakov. They were just starting the process of their divorce, but both recognized the talent in Yuri. Yakov took him in and started his training at 9 years old. Yuri was glad he had saved up some money, because the fees would keep his grandfather working much harder than he had before. He had saved up almost $1000 in the two years he had worked at the ice rink.

It was still dark outside when Yuri entered the ice rink, thrown off by the lights already turned on but not seeing anyone around. It came together when he entered the locker room and heard uneven, frantic breathing. He moved faster, finding Yuuri wide eyed and shaking on the floor.

“Oy, Katsudon.” He knelt down by the older man, unsure of how to approach this. He recognized a panic attack for what it was, of course. He was no stranger to them himself. But Viktor was away for a sponsorship deal and Yuri had always defaulted to having Viktor intervene. He cautiously set a hand on the Japanese man’s shoulder, who slumped against him, chest heaving and words attempting to escape but only emerging as garbled sounds. “Breathe with me.” He wracked his brain to think of what would help him in this situation, and started humming a lullaby his mother would use to help him sleep at night.

It took several minutes to get Yuuri to calm down, and he was apologizing profusely. Yuri just grunted and helped him remove his skates. “You’re going to be useless today so we’re going back to your apartment. I’ll tell Yakov he’ll see us tomorrow.”

“But… practice! We need to… we can’t get behind…” He stuttered through his protests, alarm rapidly increasing his heart rate. Yuri settled him with a glare.

“Your apartment. We’ll have breakfast. Do some of that stupid slow motion crap you and that social media freak do to keep stretched. Call your idiotic fiancé and tell him what happened.” Yuuri didn’t have much of an option but to agree, the exhaustion hitting him all at once. The two of them made it the three blocks to Viktor and Yuuri’s apartment, where Katsuki’s weariness overcame him and he collapsed on the couch while the teen made breakfast.

They ate together in silence before cleaning up and turning on a movie. It was an old American movie about a mouse discovering the wild west. Before long, the two of them were asleep, curled up against one another. Yuri stayed the day and the night, slipping away early for his job the following morning. Katsuki didn’t mention his early departure, but did raise an eyebrow when they passed each other on the ice.

Yuri stayed the night again, and the following night before Viktor’s enthusiastic return. It became a little tradition almost after that, for Yuri to stay whenever Viktor was away. It was better than being at Lilia’s, and it wasn’t like he didn’t stay on other occasions. Yuuri had discovered Yuri having a panic attack once during this time and silently helped the ice tiger.

Before the summer wrapped up, Yuri was on a plane to Almaty to visit Otabek and his family. It had been months of daily texting and near-daily video chatting. His excitement climbed as high as his plane, before he drifted off into sleep the way only an experienced traveler can. It returned as soon as they landed, and he became a projectile that had Otabek thanking his coaches for all his training.

Yuri heard a deep chuckle. “Hey, Yura.” He pried himself off his older friend and grinned at him. His growth spurts had him nearly eye level now. He started yammering away as they headed to Otabek’s family home, where Otabek was living so he could better save money for his career and online classes.

Otabek’s family welcomed him warmly, and it was startling much like his first time at Yutopia. Otabek had a large family with six siblings, though only four still lived at home. His two older sisters had their own families, but lived nearby. However, they brought their husband and kids with them for his welcome dinner. Yuri had to carefully control his breathing, the noise and chaos overwhelming him after being used to the small households he had stayed in.

Over a week into his stay, Yuri had grown comfortable and was considered part of the family. He and Otabek were asked to watch his sister’s kids so she and her husband could have a date night out. It was an evening filled with laughter, pillow forts, and braiding doll hair. The baby boy was asleep quickly after his bath, and Zauresh was fighting sleep.

“C’mon sweetie. Let’s lay down for bed.” Otabek tried to coax the little girl into her bedroom with various stuffed animals.

She stomped a slipper clad foot. “NO! I wanna play with Yura!” Otabek and Yuri met eyes above her head, and Yuri nodded at Otabek. He knelt down next to the girl whose dark hair he had braided not long before.

“Would you like me to sing you a lullaby my mom used to sing to me? It’s a very special song.” She nodded and lifted her arms, motioning that he should pick her up. Otabek shook his head in defeat and headed to the living room to finish cleaning up the mess they had made.

Yuri lifted the surprisingly heavy pink blanket and tucked her in. “When I was a little boy, my mom would always sing me to sleep and play with my hair. We just did yours all pretty, so I’m just going to sing, okay?” It took four renditions, but he was able to soothe her to sleep.

In the kitchen, Yuri joined Otabek for tea and cookies. “Hey, Beka? What’s with her blanket?”

Otabek hummed. “Gulmira got it for her – it’s a weighted blanket designed for kids who have sensory issues or anxiety issues. Zauresh is prone to night terrors, and her doctor recommended one. She’s had it for a couple of months and it has really helped. She still has them now and again, like once or twice a month, but before they were almost daily.”

Yuri nodded. “I’ve never heard of them before. They sound interesting.” That night, television playing a movie and Yuri’s feet in Otabek’s lap, he combed Google for the costs, benefits, and recommendations. Once he found one he liked, he ordered it without a second thought.

The months passed, the skaters became wrapped up in the Grand Prix series, and it was Yuuri’s birthday. They had a party with as many of the other skaters as possible. Yuri had wrapped his gift in a generic looking way and left it in the pile without a name. He had another gift, a small pig in ice skates, that he did attach his name to. Amongst the chaos of drinks and gift giving, Yuuri had a small smile when he opened the blanket, a blue fleece one that matched his and Viktor’s bedset. Included with the blanket was a printed copy of a website outlining the benefits of a weighted blanket.

A few months later, in ~~his~~ the guest room, a tiger print weighted blanket appeared.

**Author's Note:**

> I swear by my weighted blanket. Seriously amazing for sleep and anxiety.


End file.
